It all adds up.

Every hug.

Every prayer.

Every good wish.

Every ‘love you’.

Each one matters.

Because each one builds on the last one and becomes the strong foundation of love and care that my family has stood on through this last very difficult year filled with tough days since Davey was killed in the line of duty.

So many people have said to us,  “Please let me know if there’s anything I can do.”  Well, you’re doing it – with hugs, prayers, good wishes and ‘Love you’s”.

I am very encouraged by all the blue ribbons on Davey’s ‘Love You’ tree by his spot in the cemetery and I’m looking forward to watching the number of ribbons grow.  Those prayers are working.  Each blue ribbon matters.

I saw very clear evidence of the power of  faith, love and prayer when I talked with other mothers during Police Week in Washington, DC.  We had all lost sons in the line of duty in 2016 but our experiences were very different.   Some of it was the fact that several of them are still dealing with trials and extremely hard circumstances surrounding that.

But I credit the majority of the difference to two main things – our faith in the goodness of God and the huge amount of support we have received from family, friends, the Phoenix Police Department, the entire Phoenix community and our Blue Family.

Every hug, every prayer, every good wish, every blue ribbon, every ‘Love You’ – it has all added up to something very significant.

As a result, we haven’t experienced the bitterness I saw with many of the mothers in Washington, DC.

We haven’t experienced the extremely sad regrets that several of them expressed.

We avoided a lot of the family conflicts they were in the middle of.

We didn’t have the overwhelming need to blame someone.  We didn’t spend hours and hours checking out all of the details, second guessing the decisions that were made on the spot.

During the sessions in Washington, DC,  the members of my family were all split up in different groups that represented their relationship with the fallen officer.  And we all walked away with this same sense that our experience this last year has been different.

We’re not stuck on May 18, 2016.

We’re figuring out how to move forward, knowing that we have your support.  We are looking forward to all the possibilities of making a difference together with the David Glasser Foundation.

Every hug.

Every blue ribbon.

Every prayer.

Every good wish.

And every ‘love you’.

They have added up and made a big difference.

Thank you!  Keep it up!

Love you!

Davey loved life.  He loved a lot of things.

But the three most important things in his life were Kristen and his two children.  And that was very evident in how he lived his life.  They came first.  They were at the top of the list.  Everyday.

He had high expectations for his kids.  He cared about what they were learning and he cared about their behavior.  He was involved in every aspect of their lives.

When Davey’s son was around two, he went through a ‘Daddy’ phase where he only wanted to be with his dad.  Everywhere.  All the time.  They became a constant duo – we always saw them together.  This picture is at church on Father’s Day 4 years ago.

Davey took his son everywhere with him.  He used to spend quite a bit of time at Lowe’s – and so did his son.  Davey would also pick up my husband for these trip to Lowe’s so it became a normal Saturday thing to see all the Glasser Guys in Lowes doing whatever guys do there.

Davey had another favorite haunt that I didn’t know about until one day I was taking my little grandson to Wildflower and he pointed out ‘my daddy’s store’.  Right behind Wildflower is a Best Buy –  I wonder how much time they spent in there 🙂

My grand-daughter had to wear a ‘helmet’ when she was little to help reshape her skull.  Davey would always tell her how great she looked and how special she was.  It was a hot thing to wear and, toward the end, she didn’t want to put it on anymore.  The doctors said she should wear it for a couple of more weeks but Davey took it off.  He said she was beautiful just the way she was.

Davey loved all sports so he spent big chunks of time in his backyard playing catch with his son.  There was a lot of batting practice.  You would be surprised at how well his six year-old son can hit.  Davey also put up a basketball hoop in his backyard that adjusted way down to his small son’s height.  It has a light on it was that basketball practice was also always going on.  You can see in the picture, even when we bought a little $3 plastic golf set – golf lessons started.  

Davey dreamed about his daughter playing softball and volleyball.  I’m sure she will – she already enjoys playing catch.

But he won’t be there to coach her.

And that is what makes Father’s Day such a tough day.  The loss of a truly great dad.  All of the love.  All of the fun.

The hole in our lives is huge and painful today.

It’s been over a year since Davey was killed in the line of duty.

And we have great memories of our lives with him.  We laughed, we played and we travelled.  We watched Davey play a lot of sports and we went to many games of all kinds in all different cities with him.

So many memories that bring big smiles to our faces.

But all of our dreams for the future have been snatched away.

Dreams of Davey coaching his son and daughter in baseball, basketball, volleyball and every other sport there is.

Dreams of Davey retiring from the police force and figuring out what he was going to do next.

Dreams of Davey teaching his kids how to drive.

Dreams of Davey and Kristen growing old together.  They were married young so we talked about them the possibility of them celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.

Dreams of Davey and his son playing a mean game of one-on-one basketball after his son grew taller than him.

Dreams of Davey walking his daughter down the aisle.

Now that the shock has worn off and we’ve grown through this last very difficult year of memorials and tough days, one of the hardest parts is all of the dreams that have been snatched away.

All of the great times and fun with Davey that will never be.

We are so grateful for all of the awesome memories we have.

But will be no more new memories with him.

That’s a very tough reality to deal with.

It’s the part we don’t hear splashed all over the national media.

Recently, I was sitting with a group of mothers whose sons were all policemen who had been killed by felons in the line duty last year.  This was one of the sessions during Police Week in Washington, DC.

Each mother told her story.

And it was very hard to listen.

So much pain.

So much grief.

So much loss.

Too many stories about how evil won the battle.

But…through several of the stories….the bright light of heroism shined through.

One son stepped in front of a gun in order to save the life of the innocent person behind him.  He literally took the bullet for a person he didn’t know.  He died.  The other person lived.

Another son drove his police car in front of a speeding vehicle to save the people in the car beside him.  The police car took the hit, killing the policeman.  But his act of heroism saved the lives of all of the innocent people in the car.

Have you heard these stories leading the way on all of our national media channels for several nights in a row going over the details again and again?

No?

I haven’t either.

We hear about the small minority of bad cop situations repeated over and over but we don’t hear any of the details of the daily stories of bravery and heroism of our police officers.

What does that tell us?  It means that the news is not telling us what’s really going on.  Reading the news doesn’t mean we’re well-informed.  The media tell us what they want to tell us.  They emphasize what they want to emphasize.  The more sensational the news is – especially about cops – the more viewers they get.  And sadly, people believe this unbalanced, one-sided source.

I have to say that our Phoenix local news channels really try to strike a balance and they do pretty well.  They get details wrong but they try to present a more well-rounded picture.

The national media doesn’t even try.   They’ve taken over for the tabloids with a bunch of sensationalized scandals with he-saids and she-saids.

The President gave an awesome speech to all of us at the National Peace Officers Memorial service on May 15  filled with encouraging statements of support for all Law Enforcement agencies and changes that are coming in order to reinforce respect and honor for those who work to support the law of our land.

Did we hear a significant part of that on the national news?  I didn’t.  It wasn’t there.  The scandals took up most of the news time on that day.

The truth is – a huge amount of bravery and heroism shown by our Police Officers doesn’t make it on the national news.

There’s also another reason why we don’t hear a lot of these stories of heroism.

If you talk to a police officer, they will say it was ‘just part of my job’.

Just part of the job –

sacrificing themselves

to save others.

There is so much more to this story.

#8144loveyou